12/18/2024 – This is my first solo Christmas since my wife passed in March of 2022. Family came to visit this past year but, with family located out of state… sounds like witness protection, they will not be here this Christmas. My wife and I spent a good number of Christmases on our own.
I would admit those were tough years. Christmas, other than religious observation, is about giving, and giving via USPS and a phone call is not the same. Yes, my wife and I put up the nativity and decorated the tree, we exchanged small gifts, and wished one another Merry Christmas, but it was not the same as spending the time with children and grandchildren.
I suspect this Christmas will feel like being overseas in the military and missing Christmas… but probably without the whine of jet engines, or the discomfort of hydraulic fluid saturated fatigues. Or maybe one of those miserable work years, stuck in a hotel room with a closed restaurant, staff absent, all because of a thoughtless client’s secular work schedule.
No tree this year. No decorations. However, I do have a dustless New Catholic Bible on the coffee table, book marked at Luke, so the little baby Jesus will be a house guest in all important ways.
Jesus has always been a part of my life, at least beginning with Sunday school, which led to a First Communion and onto subsequent sacraments. He always looked out for me, even when I did not. He looked out for my family and those close to me, and caused me to never feel alone. Never scornful, vengeful, or angry. Always kind, forgiving and patient as I stumbled, fumbled and incompetently motored my way through life.
In the words of Neil Young, “Tell me why-y-y, tell me whyyyyy”
I’m not sure why, but as soon as I knew there would be no visitors, I began going through things I have not been able to go near. Closets full of clothing, drawers full of personal articles, filing cabinets full of records. I am not sure what I was thinking that would suggest the passage of time would make this an easier task. It is not.
My wife was physically a small woman, and she loved little things, and she kept little treasures hidden away. So I can’t just open a file folder to shred its contents, based on the hand written tabs. So where the contents could be something inconsequential like mortgage statements and tax records, it could also contain a picture of the kids, or a hand written personal note… or a small rock, a gift given to her by a two year old child.
Why aren’t I working at the project? The shredder complained very vocally this time, a little “Danger Doctor Smith”, while attempting to grind and spin its flailing, chewing rotors. Now it’s giving me the silent treatment with only a blinking “overheat” light to let me know it has not flat lined.
Hope you all have a great Christmas, or any other important holiday of observance, and best wishes for a spectacular 2025!!…!
Joe
Merry Christmas, Joe, and Happy Birthday!!
Cin
Thanks kiddo. Much appreciated.
I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.
The same to you, David.
Joe
Merry Christmas, Joe. And best wishes for a superior 2025.
Bill Craig
Thanks, Bill. You also. Excellent adjective for 2025.
Joe
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Joe!!
Same to you, Gary
Joe